1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid discharge device having diagnostic functions of diagnosing the discharge functions of a driving circuit for driving a discharge actuator of a liquid discharge head for discharging a liquid, and to a self-diagnosis method of the liquid discharge device. The present invention particularly relates to the art of a function for confirming that the driving circuit is in a normal state capable of discharging, before actually discharging a liquid such as medical substances, ink, or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, with inhalers wherein a person inhales a substance sprayed into the throat or mouth, there have been cases wherein the following operation is necessary as a preparation of inhaling the substance, for example. That is to say, a replaceable cartridge integrally configured of a liquid tank and liquid discharging portion, detachably mounted to the inhaler main unit, is mounted to the main unit following which confirmation is made regarding whether or not the mounting has been properly made such that the liquid can be correctly discharged. There has also been cases wherein confirmation is necessary to confirm that the discharge driving circuit for discharging at the main unit side functions properly. One conceivable method for preparation before discharging and inhaling the liquid is to cause a smaller amount of liquid, such as around 1/10 the actual amount to be inhaled, to be discharged, and to visually confirm the state of the mist discharged therefrom.
Such confirmation is also performed with printing apparatuses and the like for discharging ink, and a printing apparatus has been proposed having a function for detecting whether a printing head has been mounted or not mounted, by checking the contact state of electrical terminals.
However, such a method for visually confirming the mist state of the substance wastes the substance. Also, the method for detecting whether or not the discharge head is mounted by the state of contact at the electrical terminals only detects whether or not the discharge head is mounted, and cannot perform an overall check regarding, for example, the actuators themselves within the discharge head, such as heaters or piezoelectric elements, or the state of the driving circuit.